Dominican Republic baseball team to visit Valley

Dominican Republic youth baseball team will play a series of games in Allentown area in the next week

June 25, 2012|Keith Groller

The Dominican Republic has produced some of the finest baseball players to ever step on a diamond … stars like Albert Pujols, Pedro Martinez, Juan Marichal, David Ortiz, Pedro Guerrero, Robinson Cano and Hanley Ramirez, to mention just a few.

The country has a rich baseball history and yet, like here in America, some communities are better off than others.

In the capital city of Santo Domingo a group of people recently worked hard to bring back to life what had been an abandoned baseball facility and they have formed a new league, the Lalo Rodriguez League.

Allentown City Council president Julio Guridy came to this country from the Dominican Republican at age 15, some 37 years ago.

A friend of his, Cecilio Compres, told him about the league and the kids involved.

The wheels started turning to bring these kids to Allentown so that they could experience a different type of baseball and culture.

Guridy, with assistance from big baseball backer Lee Butz of Alvin H. Butz Construction, has arranged to bring a team from the Rodriguez League to Allentown.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for those kids to see what baseball is like here and for us to possibly see some budding stars from the Dominican Republic," Butz said. "It should be a positive experience for all involved."

Guridy said the team has already arrived in New York City and will be visiting there until coming to Allentown on Wednesday.

"I am sure that this is going to be the best experience of their lives," Guridy said. "Everyone wants to come to this country and experience it. I am very proud to be involved in this exchange. I see it as an opportunity for me to give back to my former community and maybe one day we can send a local team to the Dominican Republican to see what it's like there."

The Dominican team will feature 19 kids in the 14-16 age group. They received their visas for the trip and will be accompanied by five coaches/chaperones.

The team will play two games on Thursday night at ECTB Stadium at Bicentennial Park, taking on the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy at 5:30 and the Dave Gallagher Baseball Academy of New Jersey at 7:30.

The kids will then attend the IronPigs game on Friday night and hopefully get to go on the field and meet players during batting practice and then watch the game from the Butz suite.

On Saturday, the team will play two games at Orefield Middle School, taking on the North Parkland junior legion team at 10 a.m. and the senior legion squad at 1 p.m.

After more sight-seeing on Sunday, the team will close out its schedule on Monday at DeSales University against the West End Youth Center Connie Mack team.

"I know this team is very excited about this," Guridy said. "Mr. Butz has been so helpful as well as Kostas Kalogeropoulos of the Holiday Inn and Conference Center in Fogelsville, Kurt Landes from the IronPigs and Nelson Diaz, a local businessman. They have all been a great help because we're going to have to house the team, feed them and transport them during their time here."

Butz, by the way, is still going strong with his "Allentown Drive" baseball program. Now in its third year, "Allentown Drive" is about teaching kids the game of baseball and getting them involved in a positive, community-oriented activity while also trying to help produce talent for the high school programs at Allen and Dieruff.

Registration for the program, for kids in the 11-14 age group, will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at Fountain Park.

This year, Butz is planning to have some "classes" for parents, giving them some instruction about how best to work with their kids, and he's also hoping for more support from the city league baseball programs, who, for whatever reason, have been reluctant to get involved with "Allentown Drive."

"We're missing out on a lot of the talented kids and many of better players in the city," Butz said. "We would like to get their teams, their coaches involved in our program. We're trying to make baseball better in the city, and in turn, make the city a better place. They've been reluctant to join with us, but we'd love to have them involved."

WORLD RECORD

Mike Kuhns, 26, of Whitehall was one of 14 lifters representing Team USA at the International Powerlifting Federation "Raw" World Cup Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, earlier this month and the "Hokey Hercules" didn't disappoint.

Kuhns, lifting in the 59 kilo (130-pound) class, set a new world record in the squat lift by elevating 496 pounds, then bench-pressed 214 lbs. and deadlifted 380 for a 1,090-pound total. A torn pectoral muscle sustained two weeks prior to the meet ended his hopes of breaking the bench press record of 330 pounds and also cost him a chance to medal.

Kuhns, a member of the Twin City Powerlifting Club of Easton, earned six points for Team USA, which placed second to Russia.

SOFTBALL EVENT

International men's fastpitch returns to Pates Park on Wednesday night at 7:45 when the New Zealand Black Sox National Team takes on Pennsylvania Power, one of the top-ranked ISC teams in the world.

The legendary Ty Stofflet is expected to throw out the first pitch.

New Zealand features many of the best players in the world and will be taking on a Power squad that finished fifth in the ISC World tourney in 2010 and sixth last year. In the latest ISC World rankings, the Power was fourth.

Lucas Mata and Karl Gollan, two of the world's best pitchers, supply the Power along with their baseman Derrick Zechman.

The men's game will be preceded by a women's game featuring the Allentown Patriettes' 23&under squad against the Stripes and Strikes Futures team from Hazleton.